Gaming handhelds with clamshell designs to feature Ryzen 7 8840U
AYANEO and GPD announce upgrades to their clamshell series.
The first gaming handhelds featuring AMD’s latest CPU series have been announced. The first Mini-PCs and gaming laptops with Ryzen 8000 series processors have already been teased, but there hasn’t been much news about handheld devices. At least there was no update until now.
AYANEO has now confirmed “World’s First Dual-screen 8840U Handheld“. Behind this name is the AYANEO Flip, a system which we reported on a few weeks ago as a spiritual successor to the Nintendo DS. This is a clamshell design with a screen hiding either a full-sized keyboard (KB variant) or a smaller secondary screen (DS variant).
First handheld systems with Ryzen 7 8840U, Source: GPD/AYANEO
The company has recently announced that the Flip series will now offer the Ryzen 7 7840U and Ryzen 7 8840U APUs. This comes as no surprise, given that both APUs share the same socket, nearly identical silicon, and essentially matching specifications. The primary distinction lies in the 8040U series, featuring an enhanced XDNA1 AI processor, though this currently doesn’t impact gaming.
In related news, ITHome reports that GPD, another handheld device manufacturer, is also confirming its intention to incorporate the Ryzen 7 8840U into their Win Mini system, coincidentally adopting a clamshell design. These systems are now positioned as the leading 8040U gaming consoles, even though neither is currently available for purchase. The anticipated update for GPD device is slated for early January, while the GPD Win Mini with 7840U is already on the market. AYANEO Flip devices were not yet released with any APU.
AMD’s Ryzen 8040U series represents a modest update to the company’s lineup for low-power systems. These share the same Zen4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU architecture as the 7040U series. However, it’s worth noting that AMD is gearing up to launch its Zen5/RDNA3.5 APU series in 2024, promising a more compelling choice for handheld systems. This update may become crucial as Intel’s Core Ultra series now boasts Arc GPU performance approaching that of the integrated RDNA3 solution, and the first handheld systems were already announced weeks ago.
